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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Faster than a Speeding Bullet, More Powereful than a Locomotive, its....... |
| 2009-06-17 |
| SPEED DEMON: East Japan Railway unveils the next-generation bullet train to the Press at its rolling stock laboratory center in Rifu, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan on June 17 2009. The new bullet train is expecting to provide services between Tokyo and Aomori, northern Japan in 2011 with a maximum speed of 320 kph. - AFP Picture at the link |
| Posted by:Omock Jerert4398 |
| #13 Flying car? - it's an AMC Pacer with a launch-ramp under this Administration |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-06-17 21:59 |
| #12 The world likely will have no need of JETSON-IAN FLYING/SPACE TRAINS-CARS, I was promised one in the 1970's and dammmit I want one. |
| Posted by: Classer 2009-06-17 21:35 |
| #11 The world likely will have no need of JETSON-IAN FLYING/SPACE TRAINS-CARS, etc. until after the first LUNAR BASES + MINES, etc. are set up. Indirectly, 'tis yet another reason why IMO NASA is being premature in shutting down the Shuttle fleet. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-06-17 18:51 |
| #10 Good idea but it will take forever to get there when the train has to stop every time someone (the dog too) needs to go to the bathroom. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-06-17 17:26 |
| #9 I would like to see trains in the US take on a bit of a Ferry mentality. That is drive your car on the thing at one end, and off at the other. That way you could even take your dog with you and no worries about rental cars. Yeah loading and unloading would be a pain but nothing is perfect. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2009-06-17 17:10 |
| #8 it will not be as easy to convince the general US population to utilize trains as the 'preferred' mode of inter-city long distance transportation. I think $6/gal motor fuel (or rationed fuel) will do that quite nicely. I am not referring to a government-mandated supply, either. Just do the math. Last week the US imported 9.1 million barrels crude/day while its domestic production was only 5.3 million barrels/day. The US is borrowing at least $1.5 billion/day from foreigners (and probably a lot more with the MOAB). These sorts of numbers cannot continue forever. The era of Happy Motoring will end, just when I can't say. We can prepare by using what time & resources we have, or we can just passively let things happen and hope for a miracle. Maybe we can harness the power of Obama's rhetoric to fuel our current way of life. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-06-17 16:37 |
| #7 The trains in Japan, Western Europe and the eastern US were originally built to carry passengers, so the railroad right-of-ways are close to residential and go through metropolitan areas. West of Pennsylvania, with a few exceptions in large cities, the trains were originally built to carry freight. Without a huge infrastructure change to get the terminals to where the people actually need to be 'delivered', it will not be as easy to convince the general US population to utilize trains as the 'preferred' mode of inter-city long distance transportation. My thoughts, anyway. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2009-06-17 16:08 |
| #6 The airlines are not profitable at current fuel prices. They are doomed to be a niche market in the next 10-20 years, no matter what else happens. I would be happy if the US "upgraded" its passenger rail service to the standards it enjoyed in 1927. Then fast passenger trains went 100 mph. The "masses of land & steel" are nowhere near as hard to come by as jet fuel, motor fuel and highway maintenance costs. And trains can run on nuke power (i.e., electricity). |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-06-17 15:29 |
| #5 That is on seriously fugly train. |
| Posted by: O 2009-06-17 13:52 |
| #4 Very true, Jack. I had a business trip from Chicago to Toronto a little while back. It's a nine hour drive, door to door, or seven hours by air door to door, with all the waiting built in. No contest: I drove it and had a very pleasant ride through southern Ontario. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-06-17 12:59 |
| #3 Based on the headline, I thought maybe Kimmie was announcing he set a world record in the 100 yard dash... |
| Posted by: IG-88 2009-06-17 11:05 |
| #2 For a country like Japan it make sense. It literally takes up less composite land than an airport or even highways. They couldn't handle the congestion of such a congested country. Plus high speed rail is city center-to-city center and is more competitive with air at 300-400 miles which pretty much includes all the major Japanese cities. Think about your drive to your nearest airport, your time to clear ticketing, security etc. Then your wait to board, clear for taxi, takeoff, landing, exiting, renting a car or grabbing a taxi or bus and the trip to where you are actually headed. Compare to city center/city center rail. No comparison, really. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2009-06-17 11:03 |
| #1 Still slower than a plane and needs masses of land (and steel) dedicated to it rather than air... |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-06-17 10:01 |